One of my growing pet peeves is people clearly using AI to write an email that just needed to say: “Got it, thanks” but instead is a 200 word essay that sounds like it was written by a diplomatic mission

danah boyd recently argued that social media (as we knew it) is mostly dead; what we have now is parasocial media: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... I agree. Networked social media is disappearing, replaced by a new logic/structure of content creator, creator-centered community, & algorithm.

‼️New resource alert ‼️ At the Berkeley AI Research Lab, we developed the Transparency in GenAI Playbook – a free resource for organizations deploying genAI with 10 plays to put transparency in action 📍 Check it out! re-ai.berkeley.edu/projects/tra... #AI #ResponsibleAI #EthicalAI

This is an incredible and ambitious resource mapping the data work landscape across companies, countries, and continents from @techequity.bsky.social ✨ Six of my undergrad students worked on this for their research project for my AI & Society seminar. Proud of them!

Against the constant pressure of *genAI, genAI, genAI*, I am really appreciating @ai2.bsky.social 's work on creating tools for critical needs -- like crop maps and forest loss analysis. They just did a nice release on @hf.co. huggingface.co/blog/allenai...

"By organizing, they are insisting that people closest to AI’s development should have a voice in its direction. Listening to them is not just a matter of workplace fairness. It is essential to our ability to govern AI" Ft @js-tan.bsky.social @nataliyan.bsky.social @emilymazo.bsky.social research!

@ninabegus.bsky.social trained an LLM on Finnegan’s Wake and I think thats pretty cool! latentspacecraft.antikythera.org/finnegan/ “A way a lone a last a loved a long the”

A sociologist and psychologist walk into a bar… This is not the setup for a bad joke but a real event happening in April. Come here me speak with Dr. Wendy Rasmussen on the Future of Work at the Women in AI Salon, unpacking productivity, gender, and more! Wed. April 22nd in SF luma.com/tdpjc605

A big morning for archiving and advocacy in tech! This project by @cellllla.bsky.social and others documents workplace surveillance incidents across the U.S., as well as resources for action: wsit.work

Sharing a fantastic #transparency resource NOW OUT from the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard. Dynamic archive of tech company legal and privacy policies over time— hub.transparency.berkmancenter.org

Most of the Washington Post’s tech reporters were laid off today, including me. I have loved my time at the paper, which is where I wanted to work from age 15. I take some consolation in not being among the survivors who will have to work harder with less for fewer readers. On to better things.

My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power

My time with @equitablegrowth.bsky.social as a Dissertation Scholar was among the most pivotal moments in my PhD career– so grateful this is continuing with the support of @russellsagefdn.bsky.social! $15k in funding for dissertation candidates available: www.russellsage.org/apply/grants...

Excellent new paper from @js-tan.bsky.social and Kathleen Thelen, on the political economy of the cloud company business model and how it feeds the AI race and techno-nationalism journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Great opportunity for someone in the AI and labor space at @partnershipai.bsky.social! ats.rippling.com/pai-job-boar...

Very cool to see the paper @js-tan.bsky.social, @emilymazo.bsky.social & I wrote in @nytimes.com by @noamscheiber.bsky.social. TLDR; worker voice matters. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/b... Thx @ilrreview.bsky.social, @equitablegrowth.bsky.social, @techactions.bsky.social for making this possible!

📢 Policy colleagues — the Responsible AI Initiative at UC Berkeley, is conducting a study to understand genAI transparency needs among policymakers, experts, and advisors. If that’s you, consider filling out our (20 min) survey. Compensation $6.25 gift card: berkeley.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

From 2014 to 2022, tech workers’ social activism over #MeToo and Trump spurred the rise of bread-and-butter labor fights. Our article of the week examines the sources of class consciousness and labor activism in tech. By @js-tan.bsky.social et al. in @ilrreview.bsky.social buff.ly/DOl6IBm

@cellllla.bsky.social and I spoke with Eva Thiebaud for Options Magazine (France) about how the tech industry has changed politically since the Trump presidency and why techno-solutionism no longer holds any weight www.media-options.fr/2025/10/10/e...

📢 New article alert 📢 "Unlikely Organizers: The Rise of Tech Worker Labor Activism" is out with @ilrreview.bsky.social @js-tan.bsky.social, @emilymazo.bsky.social, and I find tech cos with political and social activism in the workplace saw 1.3x more labor activism in the next 6-12 months (1/2)

So excited to share our new article on tech worker activism, co-authored with @nataliyan.bsky.social and @emilymazo.bsky.social, just published in the @ilrreview.bsky.social!

Fantastic opp to be a defining voice on tech policy!

📝 🎓 ✨ New year. New semester. New syllabus for my undergraduate seminar (AI & Society) at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social 📝 🎓 ✨ Link here: drive.google.com/file/d/1xquO...

Two amazing resources on worker voice and AI that you should know about: (1) ILO’s Global Case study of AI and algorithmic management by @vdoellgast.bsky.social and team The single best compendium of international law and union cases I’ve seen on this topic www.ilo.org/sites/defaul... (1/2)

For those at ASA (American Sociological Association) this year, come check out my paper session on: ✨ Responsible Generative AI Use by Product Managers. Sunday, Aug 10th, 8-9:30am Paper link: arxiv.org/pdf/2501.16531 And comment with anything else I can’t miss! @asanews.bsky.social

If you’re at Academy of Management tomorrow, come hear Genevieve Smith present on our paper covering genAI use by product managers— journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5...

The 90+ organizations supporting a People's AI Action Plan all have concrete, actionable ideas for an AI agenda that furthers the interests of everyday people and challenges the tech billionaire agenda we’ll see from the White House. Learn more about them: peoplesaiaction.com

Proud of @techactions.bsky.social for being among the first signatories to the People’s AI Action Plan— we need a tech agenda that puts the interests of workers and ordinary people first

📣 Exceptional resource alert from @ucblaborcenter.bsky.social: a database of U.S. union bargaining provisions related to workplace tech. laborcenter.berkeley.edu/negotiating-... Workers need a voice in how tech is utilized in the workplace— and here are 175 blueprints for what that looks like

I spoke with @amandahoover.bsky.social at @businessinsider.com about the cost pressures that AI competition is putting on other operations at Big Tech companies. (1/4) www.businessinsider.com/silicon-vall...

fellow nonfiction writers! if you're not currently saving EVERY SINGLE web page/web news story you cite to the Wayback Machine YOU SHOULD BE!! no more dead links in footnotes! no more dead links in bibliographies! never ever forget how fragile the internet is—save internet history!

Content moderators are the backbone of the Internet and AI. No such thing as ethics without the ethical treatment of those who make it all possible

Harriet Tubman #quilt by my Mom, Vera P. Hall, who makes quilts celebrating Black people who fought for their own freedom. This seems to be the crowd favorite of the “We Didn’t Wait for Freedom” series. Happy #Juneteenth #quilting

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

@techactions.bsky.social is back!!! We're posting again and updating our archive and doing a big overhaul of the website. Sign-up below and stay tuned for more 👇

Brilliant project mapping the network of contracting firms that make the hidden labor of AI possible— transparency is a critical first step

Today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us. We need to reclaim public power over the future trajectory of AI. In our 2025 report we offer a policy roadmap for how to regulate AI in favor of the public interest. Read the report: ainowinstitute.org/2025-landscape

Efforts to prepare for AI’s effects on employment must be grounded in evidence, not speculative futures, @nataliyan.bsky.social‬ writes. “Absent specificity…we risk either inaction or misdirected action on some of the most important issues of our time.” www.techpolicy.press/weaponizing-...

📣 New op-ed for Tech Policy Press is out. Thanks to @benlennett.bsky.social, @megyoung0.bsky.social, @jakemetcalf.bsky.social, @datasociety.bsky.social for making it possible!

For @techpolicypress.bsky.social, Natalia Luka warns us about how speculative harms attached to technologies like AGI miss how AI is impacting workers in the present and can actually lead to misdirected action

New non-profit by @yoshuabengio.bsky.social outputs “safe-by-design” AI systems that provide probabilities with their answers. That’s how these systems actually think… probabilities not all-knowing certainties. Glad to see someone lifting the hood on AI systems for the broader public

This is the kind of data that makes the case. 📊 AIDS deaths were rising—then dropped fast after 2005. ⬇️ PEPFAR launched in 2003. That’s not a coincidence. That’s impact. 🌍 We use this data to show what works in global health. It’s why PEPFAR still matters. ❤️

Such an honor and a (bittersweet) joy to celebrate the retirement of Neil Fligstein this weekend. His critical work on shareholder capitalism convinced me to become an economic sociologist and impacted scholars across political science, economics, and IR sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/neil...

Everyone in the past was neurotypical, which is how we got things like this single-author, eight-volume encyclopedia of ferns

Petition to add a sixth love language: forwarding email events and relevant newsletters

Harvard is showing that the key to defeating authoritarianism is solidarity

*Chef’s kiss* for this guide to recognizing AI discrimination from @techtonicjustice.bsky.social. Read, rinse, repost

@asanews.bsky.social, @aft.org , and others won nationwide order blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to cut off federal funding for teaching students the history and sociology of race and racism democracyforward.org/updates/harm...

“No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” - Dean Alan Garber Proud of @harvard.edu for standing up for academic freedom 👏